With the advent of digital photography and the world-wide-web, there has been an exponential growth in the creation and storage of digital photographic images. As the number of digital photographs taken and stored has grown, so too has the need for a convenient method of archiving, cataloguing, searching, and retrieving them. Modern methods of archiving and storing digital images typically require users to remember large amounts of information merely to locate photos that are of particular interest to them. For example, many users currently store their digital images in the hierarchical, directory-based file system structure that is native to personal computers. To find particular photos stored in such a hierarchical directory tree or structure, users must know the full pathname to the directory in which their photographs are stored.
There are other disadvantages to storing digital photographs in a hierarchical, directory-based file system. For example, cataloguing and storing groups of photos by categories such as vacation photos or wedding photos requires creating different directories for each of the desired categories. This further increases the amount of information that must be remembered in order to locate desired photos. In addition, in order to store photos in two or more overlapping categories, such as photos that include your favorite aunt and photos from your cousin's wedding, users must either store duplicate photographs, or master the concepts of directory trees and file pointers. While these are not difficult concepts for sophisticated computer users, they can be troublesome for less sophisticated users, thereby limiting the useful ways these users can store and retrieve digital photographs and photographic information.